Alligators + Air boats = Amazing Fun

You've heard the saying, "all work and no play makes Jill a dull girl." Well, last week I was in Florida to meet with my Mastermind group. It is two full days of intense coaching, talking, brainstorming, releasing, planning, growing work.

For past meetings I've always arrived a day early to acclimate to the weather and the time zone, but usually spent the time in my room, just hanging out. This time I wanted to do it differently. I wanted to have some FUN!

I have always wanted to canoe through the Everglades. So a few weeks before the trip I looked online and discovered that the marshy, boggy part of the Everglades was too far from Miami for an easy day trip. I was bummed. Disappointed. I couldn't believe that I was so close to a dream and it wasn't going to happen.

And then I stepped back and asked myself how ELSE I could do this, what other options might there be.

I googled again and found all kinds of tours to a closer area of the Everglades where, instead of canoes, they took you on an air boat through the tall grasses of the park. Suddenly I was excited again. I was going to get to the Everglades!

My friend and fellow Masterminder Anna was excited too. She is all about having fun! And so we took the tour bus from our hotel to Gator Park, one of the many tacky businesses along US 41 that take tourists on an air boat tour into the Everglades.

An air boat has a flat bottom so that it glides on top of the water. It is powered by a very loud engine that looks like a giant fan. (It's the kind of boat they used in the TV show Flipper.)

We started out in the channel, gliding past beautiful water lilies and pond apple trees. Everyone on the boat had their cameras out, ready to snap a picture of an alligator in the water. We saw several, their eyes and snouts barely rising out of the water.

Out past the channels, the sky and the water opened up into a prairie of tall grass. As the boat powered across the water, flying over the tops of the grasses, I put in my earplugs and became one with the wind and weathering sky and the smells of the sweet grass.

I was so filled with joy for being where I was that I was crying. I was just so happy.

Yes, we saw alligators, young ones that I'm sure they feed so that, when the boats come through the channel, the passengers are sure to see them. And we saw a few egrets out in the open grass. And yes, the gift shop was tacky and the food was barely mediocre.

But it was the best day. Because I made it happen. Because I was in the Everglades. Because, instead of sitting in my room, waiting for the meetings to begin, I was out having fun!